Sound of Madness

Max: I shrugged. "I know. I wasn't calling myself fat or anything. Muscle weighs more than fat, though."

Dana: "And 150 isn't that big...."

Max: "Yeah...I know...?" My brother probably weighed at least two hundred. And that was mostly muscle.

Dana shrugged and picked up her cat. "Just saying."

Max: "Different subject?" I suggested. "Preferably not in here?"

Dana gave him a funny look. "You don't like to be alone in rooms with people, do you?"

Max: "I think bathrooms are weird places to have conversations..."

"And regular rooms, too," Dana mumbled as they left the bathroom, thinking of when they'd found the cat the other day.

Max: "Living rooms are fine..."

"How come?"Dana said.

Max: "I'm just saying. They're fine."

"That wasn't my question," Dana murmured, as she carried the cat downstairs.

Max: "Sorry?" I wasn't good at answering questions.

"It doesn't matter. No one answers my questions, anyway." Dana shrugged.

Max: I frowned. "Really? No one?"

"I was exaggerating, Max," Dana said amusedly.

Max: I nodded. "Oh," I said. "Okay." I still didn't get exaggeration and sarcasm sometimes.

Dana bit her lip. Sometimes it was hard to talk to Max, but she liked talking to him for some reason, anyway.

Max: "Hey, are we going downstairs or what?" I asked.

"I'm going to stay up here and..." Dana tried to think of something for an excuse.

Max: "Up here and what?" I frowned. Was she annoyed with me? I should have known. I wasn't the guy people wanted to be around.

"Why does it matter?" Dana said, stalling.

Max: I shrugged. "Maybe it matters, maybe it doesn't. Guess that's up to you."

Dana blinked. "Um, what?"

Max: "Your opinion should be the only one that really matters? I dunno."